I've been thinking about what to stay in at BM and there's a surplus store about 15 miles from me, they have tons of crazy army tents. This SEEMS like a good idea? They're a heavy canvas, I'd assume they're pretty strong, and I can get one for fairly cheap. Any advice would be great!

I've seen them used many of times. They are strong enough and look great, but the dark colored ones get really hot during the day. A canopy suspended over the tent would be a great help. I scored a big camo net last summer that would really look cool suspended over a military tent.

The camp with a differenceNever mind the weatherWhen you camp with Plug & PlyYour holiday's forever

They have those too! (camo nets). The style I like comes in green or tan though...I'm guessing that youd recommend tan It doesn't have a floor, which I like, and the walls roll up on all four sides so it seems to serve a dual purpose. How about size? At music festivals they only give you the small area behind your car but these tents start at 16 ft. By 16ft.! I'm not trying to piss of my neighbors...

umm... you do realize the playa is basically talcum powder? Talcum powder that is in, on, and hovering around everything. Without a floor or something acting as a floor (see threads on hexayurts), dust in going to come pouring into your tent from the bottom (see pic of the staff commissary below, which has separate walls as well, during a white-out last year). If the weather is like last year, you & all your stuff will be buried inside your tent - and even tents with floors tend to get dusty.

The playa isn't like the ground at any festival you've been to, unless you've been to one that's taken place on an alkaline salt bed. I'd highly suggest at least getting old carpeting that will cover an area slightly larger than your tent to cut down on the dust. Generally the only areas that tend to have no floor-cover are public areas, not where your bed is.

Below is the inside of a regular tent after a dust-storm:

It's a camping trip in the desert, not the redemption of the fallen world - Cryptofishist

Hondovious wrote:But tourists become burners, sometimes at least.. Isn't that partially why we do this? To show a different path?

Yes, and there will be amazing people who get hit with their first white-out & fall in love with the playa. They will be in the minority of first-timers, however.

What I think Elliot is saying is that if people saw the "other" side of the event, not just the art-cars/costumes/dancing/lights/fun-fun-fun part, but the reality of living in a dry lake-bed for a week where the dust in the air is trying to suck the moisture out of your body... well, we might have less people who come thinking we're the newest stop on the EDM circuit or something on a bucket-list, and more who come because they've heard about all of it & are dying to experience it.

It's a camping trip in the desert, not the redemption of the fallen world - Cryptofishist

I was going to MASH as well. "The CO" and "Oregon Red" run that camp and are on this board. They don't show up often, so maybe a pm, I dunno. But they've been out there with their tents since 99 or something, i.e. longer than I've been going ot the event.

The Lady with a Lamprey

"The powerful are exploiting people, art and ideas, and this leads to us plebes debating how to best ration ice.Man, no wonder they always win....." Lonesomebri

umm... you do realize the playa is basically talcum powder? Talcum powder that is in, on, and hovering around everything. Without a floor or something acting as a floor (see threads on hexayurts), dust in going to come pouring into your tent from the bottom (see pic of the staff commissary below, which has separate walls as well, during a white-out last year). If the weather is like last year, you & all your stuff will be buried inside your tent - and even tents with floors tend to get dusty.

The playa isn't like the ground at any festival you've been to, unless you've been to one that's taken place on an alkaline salt bed. I'd highly suggest at least getting old carpeting that will cover an area slightly larger than your tent to cut down on the dust. Generally the only areas that tend to have no floor-cover are public areas, not where your bed is.

Below is the inside of a regular tent after a dust-storm:

I've read about the dust and someone else suggested a normal tent inside of the bigger military tent. put my stuff in ziplocs/trash bags...I've read about the alkalinity... It seems like a tent that big would be hard to get that much dust out of (with a floor)...

I do appreciate your concern though... I also like your other post and feel like I'll be in the minority who loves it all! I've actually been wanting to go for about 3 years but didn't feel quite ready. I've done tons of reading, talking, and asking literally for years now and I feel pretty confident it'll change my life. I'm pretty damn excited-

Shaolinskunk wrote:I do appreciate your concern though... I also like your other post and feel like I'll be in the minority who loves it all! I've actually been wanting to go for about 3 years but didn't feel quite ready. I've done tons of reading, talking, and asking literally for years now and I feel pretty confident it'll change my life. I'm pretty damn excited-

If looking at those pictures makes you go "I can do this", then, yeah, you'll probably be just fine.

It's a camping trip in the desert, not the redemption of the fallen world - Cryptofishist

Have you ever been camping on a giant flat former lake bed when one of those storms blew up?? The only shelter you have is what you brought with you. (At least most of the time the playa dust is very fine and does not hurt when it hits bare skin.) Make sure you have goggles and some sort of dust mask with you all the time. (I have heard that it sucks to be caught in a dust storm for 6 hours with no goggles/mask - never let that happen to myself)

I am not trying to scare you off. I am saying, until you have experienced a playa dust storm - you really have not been in a storm...

Love Rice

Roach: "I feel like in this day and age, every girl should know how to build a flamethrower."

In 010 I was limping the van home.. The engine was running bad about sun down. I stop for the night.. Throw a sleeping bag warped in a tarp on the ground.. After a long hot day of 25 to 30 mph.. I went right to sleep on the ground.. Woke up after sun rise. Got out of the sleeping bag and couldn't find my pee pee. It was 24 degrees and that thing was not heading out..